Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Michaelides.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Michael is an Atlanta native with a lifelong love of fitness and coaching. A self-proclaimed “fat kid” that was active in sports, it was the discovery of wrestling in his early teens that finally whipped Michael into shape. Michael wrestled in high school for Woodward Academy. He went on to wrestle at Purdue University where his collegiate athletic career was cut short due to an injury that made him unable to pass an NCAA physical. Without a working tricep in his left arm, Michael was able to qualify for the Cyprus national freestyle wrestling team by winning both the Cyprus Nationals and World Team trials; representing Cyprus in the World Championships held in Ankara, Turkey in 1999.
Michael returned to Atlanta to complete his education and went on to pursue his professional career as a technology consultant. His passion for wrestling continued, but this time through coaching at his high school alma mater for 12 years. Eventually, his road warrior consulting schedule prevented him from coaching, so he turned his attention to long-distance running and marathon training. To Michael, there’s no doubt that it was “destiny” when a running injury and a deal on Groupon led him to CrossFit Downtown Atlanta in 2011 (formerly CrossFit On the Move). Little did he know that stepping into that gym would lead to a dramatic change in his life and career.
As a coach, nothing brings Michael more joy than seeing others reach and exceed their fitness goals. Michael evangelizes that the pursuit of health and wellness are always possible, even when one is challenged with physical limitations.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
1. Michael took ownership of CrossFit Downtown Atlanta in October of 2015. At the time, the business was in the red, but he saw that simply implementing auto-billing processes would significantly help to right the ship. However, shortly after taking ownership Michael had to also move the business due to the building being demolished. The new facility opened December of 2015. Miraculously, we lost zero members.
2. COVID posed a significant challenge as our members pay on a month-to-month basis. We quickly pivoted to online classes, and lent barbells, weights and dumbbells to members for free so they could stay active. ~60% of our members continued to pay their monthly membership. For those that could not pay, we kept their membership active so they could participate in online classes. As the lockdown began to lift, we transformed the gym so members could safely workout in their own 10’x13′ mini-gym. Each space was fully equipped with all equipment needed for workouts and cleaning items. We’ve continued this layout as it is a differentiator for us in comparison to other group fitness facilities.
3. Michael’s roles within the gym includes: Owner, Head Coach, and General Manager. His staff of 8 are purely coaches. Membership has stayed consistent throughout the years, but scaling the business has been impossible without having adequate support beyond coaching. Michael’s wife, Autumn recently retired from her career in tech executive leadership to take on General Management and Marketing full time. Just a few weeks in, we are just starting to see an uptick in the new member pipeline.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At CrossFit Downtown Atlanta we specialize in group fitness classes for people at any level of fitness, regardless of previous CrossFit experience. Our 60-minute classes include the warm up, workout, and cool down. Workouts are a varied combination of weight lifting, body weight movements, and cardio. Each class is lead by a credentialed coach that knows how to support individuals through the workout based on wherever they are in their fitness journey. A limited class size of 16 participants allows our coaches to provide this level of focus. You do not need to be fit to join CrossFit Downtown Atlanta. You join CrossFit Downtown Atlanta to become fit.
As mentioned earlier, one key differentiator between us and other group fitness facilities is having 16 fully functional workout stations. In many CrossFit and Functional Fitness gyms, members have to search for their favorite barbell, seek out a pullup bar that works for their height, trade out weights and dumbbells with other members, and hope to find an available air bike or rower. In our facility all equipment needed is within arm’s reach of the participant. We take pride in minimizing cognitive load on our members. We take all the guess work out of coming to class and simply make it easy to have a great workout.
We also go against the grain of common gym business methodology by not having membership contracts. Our month to month plan allows a member to cancel with a 30 day notice. We believe that we should always be earning our members’ business.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We have partnered in our facility with a functional medicine doctor (Radvocacy Wellness) to provide chiropractic, sports/functional medicine and nutritional serves both to our members and throughout our community. We welcome proposals from businesses with complimentary services that would benefit our members.
Pricing:
- We are transparent in our pricing. It is clearly outlined on our website: https://www.cfdtatl.com/copy-of-get-started
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cfdtatl.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfdowntownatl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cfdowntownatl/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atl-barbell/
- Twitter: https://x.com/cfdowntownatl
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/crossfitdowntownatlanta
